The present disclosure relates generally to information handling systems, and more particularly to the control of Software Defined Networking (SDN) information handling systems based on their communications capabilities.
As the value and use of information continues to increase, individuals and businesses seek additional ways to process and store information. One option available to users is information handling systems. An information handling system generally processes, compiles, stores, and/or communicates information or data for business, personal, or other purposes thereby allowing users to take advantage of the value of the information. Because technology and information handling needs and requirements vary between different users or applications, information handling systems may also vary regarding what information is handled, how the information is handled, how much information is processed, stored, or communicated, and how quickly and efficiently the information may be processed, stored, or communicated. The variations in information handling systems allow for information handling systems to be general or configured for a specific user or specific use such as financial transaction processing, airline reservations, enterprise data storage, or global communications. In addition, information handling systems may include a variety of hardware and software components that may be configured to process, store, and communicate information and may include one or more computer systems, data storage systems, and networking systems.
Information handling systems such as, for example, switch devices, are used in computing networks in order to allow information to be transmitted between computing devices. In addition, many such computer networks are now utilizing Software Defined Networking (SDN) protocols such as the OPENFLOW® protocol, the Open Network Environment provided by CISCO® Systems of San Jose, Calif., United States, the network virtualization platform provided by VMWARE® of Palo Alto, Calif., United States, and/or other SDN protocols known in the art. Software Defined Networking is an approach to computing networking that allows network administrators to programmatically initialize, control, and manage network behavior dynamically via open interfaces and the abstraction of lower-level functionality. This is done primarily by decoupling/disassociating the systems that make decisions about where data traffic is sent (i.e., the control plane) from the underlying systems that forward data traffic to its destination (i.e., the data plane.) In networks operating according to SDN protocols, an SDN controller device manages or controls SDN switch devices to configure those SDN switch devices to route data traffic according to centralized rules, and the SDN switch devices route that data traffic according to those rules.
Conventional SDN networks typically include SDN switch devices that operate at different tiers of the SDN network, and SDN networks may include SDN switch devices that have differing communications capabilities (e.g., some SDN switch devices in the SDN network may include a first level of bandwidth and/or a first packet processing capability to process data packets at a first speed, while some SDN network may include a second level of bandwidth that is different than the first level of bandwidth, and/or a second packet processing capability to process data packets at a second speed that is different than the first speed.) For example, SDN networks may include an aggregation layer with SDN switch devices that have bandwidth and packet processing capabilities that are relatively higher than SDN switch devices provided in an edge layer of the SDN network. Such communications capability mismatching in SDN switch devices of an SDN network is even more common when the SDN network includes SDN switch devices from different vendors (e.g., because each vendor may utilize different hardware, software, and/or other components in their SDN switch devices.)
SDN switch devices in SDN networks may require a minimum level of communications capabilities (e.g., a capability to process packets at a minimum of 300 packets per second (pps)) in order to provide for efficient operation of the SDN network. For example, an SDN switch device that is not capable of processing packets at a minimum rate may be unable to process flow modifications, may be unable to respond to keep alive packets in a regular manner, and/or may be unable to perform a variety of other SDN control communications known in the art. In conventional SDN networks, when an SDN switch device does not include minimum communications capabilities, excessive SDN protocol communications overhead and unstable connections between the SDN controller device and those SDN switch devices may occur. For example, when communicating with an SDN switch device with relatively low communications capabilities, the SDN controller device may be required to repeatedly send flow information until those flows are properly installed in the SDN switch device, repeatedly re-instantiate connections to the SDN switch device (e.g., tearing down and re-establishing the connection), and/or perform other actions that would be apparent to one of skill in the art in possession of the present disclosure. Such issues stem from the fact that SDN protocols tend to take a reactive approach to issues in the SDN network by simply operating to repair flows and/or flow sessions after problems result from SDN switch devices having poor communications capabilities.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide an improved SDN control system.